Common users and operators may all apply for user accounts in a social networking application system. The operators may provide services, such as querying, notification, consulting, and a customer service, to the common users by using the social networking application system.
In a related technology, a social networking application system may provide an open platform for a service provider, and a user account that the operator applies for may be referred to as a public account. After following, in a social networking application, the public account that the operator applies for, a common user can become a follower of the public account. The operator can send a message to the follower by using an open platform. Specifically, the operator generates a message sending request by using a third-party server, and sends the message sending request to the open platform. The message sending request carries a to-be-sent message and a user account of at least one follower. Correspondingly, after receiving the message sending request, the open platform reads the user account carried in the message sending request, and forwards the foregoing message to a client terminal corresponding to the user account.
During implementation of embodiments of the present application, it was found that the related technology has at least the following problem: When a service provider needs to send a message to multiple followers, the operator needs to add user accounts of the multiple followers to a message sending request one by one, resulting in complex operations and affecting message sending efficiency.